In a full-duplex radio with a fixed frequency offset, a duplexer is typically required to enable full duplex operation. Conventional duplexers, however, are normally made of ceramic filters, which are bulky and provide only a limited amount of isolation. As the size of communication terminals is getting smaller, the size and significant cost of the conventional duplexer is a concern that must be addressed.
FIG. 1 depicts the operation of a duplexer, which provides a minimum amount of insertion loss in the desired pass band, a sufficient amount of isolation between the Tx and Rx signals, and a sufficient amount of attenuation outside the desired frequency band. The illustrated configuration requires only one antenna for both transmitting and receiving. The use of a single antenna, however, has certain drawbacks. In particular, the antenna must be broadband, covering both Tx and Rx frequencies. As a result, the antenna has low antenna gain with poor VSWR (voltage standing wave ratio) performance. In addition, the single antenna requires the duplexer, which as noted above is space consuming and expensive.